Rixon Stewart — Sept 19, 2014

Yes votes in No pile at Scottish referendum. Click to enlarge

Despite its title this video DOES NOT PROVE that the entire Scottish independence referendum “was rigged”. What we have is some VERY QUESTIONABLE counting procedure by one woman and it may well be indicative of what was going on elsewhere.

However, although it needs to be looked into it may not have been the only reason for the No votes win.

I say that as someone who lives in Scotland and my impression is that the official result, albeit with a substantially reduced ‘majority’, does indeed reflect popular opinion. Some incidents and experiences from the past couple of days serve to illustrate this.

A beautiful young woman I know in Edinburgh entreated on the morning of the referendum to vote “No”. A Yes vote would be a “disaster”, she said, and she seemed genuinely concerned.

However she might not be representative of the broader Scottish electorate as although Diana is resident in Edinburgh, and therefore entitled to vote in the referendum, she actually comes from Helsinki, Finland.

Later that morning I took a taxi in Edinburgh and the driver asked me “What are you going to vote?” I said “No” and his answer was significant and foreshadowed much of what else was to follow:

“You know, I keep asking all my passengers what they are going to vote and almost everybody I ask says No”.

Later in the afternoon I was on a bus in Edinburgh sitting in front of two young girls who were very vocal Yes campaign supporters. Both were probably no more than 16 or 17 years-old but as the minimum voting age in the referendum was 16 they would have been entitled to vote.

Full of youthful enthusiasm they were in high spirits and began asking other passengers what they would vote. The first man they asked said he was going to vote No, as did the second. While the third man they asked said, “I won’t answer because that’s a private matter.”

Then they asked me and I said “No”. Whereupon, unsolicited, another woman chipped in and said: “I’m going to vote No too”.

Although the girls cheered and waved at Yes campaigners on the streets outside, and although no one took offence, none of the other passengers on the fairly crowded bus said they would vote Yes.

The following morning I was at a bus stop in a small town in the Scottish Borders where two men were talking about the referendum result. Both seemed relieved at the outcome because, as one explained, “a Yes vote would have created problems”.

I was in another small town in the Scottish Borders later that afternoon and wherever I went I sensed a palpable air of relief with the outcome of the vote. From the general upbeat atmosphere in the town centre to a couple of young toughs who were smoking outside a bar and berating Alex Salmond for being a “Dobby”, (Scots slang for idiot or jerk).

Finally, although I wont dispute claims that London was genuinely worried about the referendum and consequently may have tried to rig the outcome, my experiences in the past few days tell me that perhaps they needn’t have bothered.

The No vote might have won anyway.

Make no mistake, when roused the Scots are a fiery, passionate people and this contest was always going to be a fierce one. However, I don’t think vote rigging was behind the referendum victory, only the wide margin of the win.

If another referendum were to be held without the rigging the No’s would still win, albeit with a much reduced majority.

So while the following video reveals some highly questionable vote counting procedures, I sense that the majority of Scots don’t actually want to separate from England.